Harry Potter: Discover the Magic, Spanish title Harry Potter: magic awakens, stands as a universal invitation to the famous School of Witchcraft and Wizardry created by J.K. Rowling, open to a large number of potential students who may not have a PC or gaming console through which to experience Hogwarts Legacy.
A risky comparison? Without a doubt, the project for iOS and Android created by Portkey Games, a division of Warner Bros. created specifically to produce licensed games inspired by Wizarding World, is quite ambitious and it only takes a few hours to understand how much content, stories, characters, references and obviously fanservice have been included in the package.
So, let's hurry up: the Hogwarts Express is ready to depart from platform 9 and 3/4 of King's Cross station and we won't stop telling you about our journey on Harry Potter Review: Discover the Magic.
History
La history Harry Potter: Discover the Magic takes place ten years after the dramatic confrontation with Voldemort, so the Castle we will have the opportunity to visit in the role of a new character, which will be created using a fairly complete and well-organized editor. is basically the one we already know, including the "recruiter" who we will see entering our house in the opening sequences, Rubeus Hagrid, as well as the new headmistress Minerva McGonagall.
The student we will play with is first escorted to Diagon Alley to get a wand, then takes the Hogwarts Express to reach the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, finding on board the train the mysterious Ivy Warrington, a little girl he met in Ollivander's wand shop and with whom he shared an eventful first combat experience.
On a purely introductory level, Discover the Magic misses nothing and in fact insists on representing every aspect on screen. most iconic sequences from the Harry Potter novels and films, starting naturally with the Sorting ceremony that takes place in the castle's Great Hall, during which new students wear the Sorting Hat and are assigned to one of the four available houses: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw , Slytherin and Hufflepuff.
Different groups are thus formed, between friends and antagonists: a cast perfectly enhanced by one really intriguing graphic style, as well as dialogues performed in English (subtitled in Spanish) that can be sped up or omitted if desired: the title developed by NetEase It never forgets its mobile nature and what this implies in terms of volatility of experience, but at the same time it puts a lot of effort into the narrative front.
structure
During the Selection ceremony an unexpected event occurs: Ivy has disappeared and no one knows where she has ended up, so finding her will become our first main mission. At the same time, however, we will have the opportunity to discover all the activity available in and around Hogwarts: fights in the Duel Room, excursions to the Forbidden Forest, mini-games related to dancing and potion creation, as well as exploration as an end in itself, which is not limited to the castle areas .
From the playground we can retrieve our broom and fly freely around the school to discover what else is interesting to see in the world of Harry Potter: Discover the Magic, which is currently presented with a small map: In addition to the castle, Hagrid's hut, the Quidditch field and Diagon Alley we will not be able to visit anything else, since the town of Hogsmeade will arrive later.
In any case, we can move within theadjustment in the way we prefer: moving in first person and orienting ourselves between rooms and buildings, on foot or by broom (by the way: a real shame that the flight was not as good as the one described in Laya's Horizon review), or use fast travel, which is activated by simply tapping an objective from the interface, as is now the case in several mobile MMOs.
All the contents of Harry Potter: Discover the Magic are accessible for free, and from this point of view we can certainly speak of a elastic and tolerant free-to-play model, full of microtransactions and a season pass that increases rewards, but on an optional basis. Do you want to purchase packs to unlock spells, echoes, clothing and furniture with which to customize your room? Nobody stops you, but at the same time nobody forces you to do it. The exception, as is often the case, is represented by PvP, which could push you towards a pay-to-win dynamic.
Gameplay
In short, Wizarding World's new licensed game is quite rich, full of references and activities necessary to try, but how do the game mechanics work? game? As mentioned, exploration is done freely, using a third-person view and two invisible virtual analogue joysticks, placed on either side of the touch screen, which unfortunately in some cases tend to "stuck" a little: we hope that the updates will fix Hurry up with these mistakes.
The dialogues with the different characters that we will find between the Hogwarts rooms or on the map usually include the possibility of giving different answers, but it is not clear whether or not this produces ramifications, even if they are minor, during the course of the campaign. . After that there are the mini game, for example that of dance which is based on the touch of rhythmic elements, according to tradition, or that of creating potions, loosely inspired by Cooking Mama.
Without a doubt the most interesting part is the fight, which plays like a card game with real-time strategic action. In this situation the stage is closed like a small arena, with the possibility of moving from one side to the other to try to avoid the attacks of our opponents, while at the bottom of the screen a numerical indicator increases with the passage of time , allowing us to use our cards.
The latter represent the iconic enchantments from the Harry Potter saga: from Incendio to Expulso, from Inflatus to Expulso, from Stupeficium to Incarceramus, and many others; and summons, which allow you to summon creatures or companions that automatically attack the enemy: centaurs, book monsters, spiders, and other students. We can even make it look like a fireball is bouncing off opponents.
Throughout history we will have the opportunity to enrich and strengthen ours. cover, inserting different magic inside and also creating variations, as happens in all games of this type. We can also use the echo of a legendary figure to obtain extra abilities, such as Dobby's movements, Snape's attacks and Harry's elemental abilities.
The system created by the development team is solid and interesting, although it is characterized by a tendency to repeat and by a balance of difficulty clearly calibrated downwards: it will take several hours to obtain a minimum challenge, which probably represents the price to pay when also targeting a target of very young users.
Technical realization
We have already commented that stylistically Harry Potter: Discover the Magic is a really interesting product, to the point that at certain moments it seems that we are looking at a book of illustrations that come to life. He character design, both the unpublished and the consolidated ones (whose appearance does not refer, for obvious reasons, to the protagonists of the film saga), is absolutely convincing and it is a shame that in terms of animation the interaction with the setting seems so rigid. and outdated.
Despite these limitations, there are sequences that will not fail to impress you on a visual level and that will undoubtedly push the bar for mobile games a little further. The fact that the colonna sonora is inspired by that of the films, based on John Williams' iconic main theme, it represents just the proverbial icing on the cake for such an ambitious production, which also does not disappoint in terms of dialogue and interpretation.
Conclusions
Tested version iPhone digital delivery app store, Google Play Price Free Holygamerz.com 8.0 Readers (9) 6.5 your voteHarry Potter: Discover the Magic is undoubtedly the most licensed mobile game in the Wizarding World: a particularly substantial and well-made title, full of references to the saga created by J.K. Rowling and is characterized by peculiar atmospheres and designs, in many ways close to those of Tim Burton's feature films. This should be enough, and we are sure it will be enough, to excite the many fans of the series, although there are no shortage of flaws in this ambitious production: the inconsistent degree of challenge of the first hours, the repetitiveness of the activities and the inevitable paid implications: win for those who want to try their hand at PvP at an advanced level and reach the top.
PRO
- A dream come true for Harry Potter fans on iOS and Android
- Solid combat system, lots to do and see.
- Excellent character designs, movie soundtrack.
AGAINST
- Inconsistent challenge in the first hours
- Activities tend to be repeated.
- In PvP the shadow of pay to win appears
